Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-11-02
Potash and Trees.


Potash and Trees.
It has long been known to orchard
lists that an application of unleached
wood ashes was excellent in case OF
unhealthy or unfruitful trees, and es-
pecially so in cases of trees as pre-.
tentative of yellows, and for apple and
pear trees affected with blight and rot
ting of fruit. Unfortunately, wood
ashes are not always to be had, but
the chief constituent, potash, is com.
paratively cheap in some of it's forms,
kainit, for example, which contains
from % to 80 per cent. of chloride OF
potassium, besides notable quantities
of magnesia, lime and common salt.
Chloride OF potassium also is q Ger
man product-a clay containing 25
per cent. in it's weight of this chloride.
East it is considered cheapest, though
not the best source of agricultural
potash.
Sandy. land is notably sought for as
a fruit soil, especially for peaches.
These ere often deficient in potash,
the chief source of which IN soils Is
from the breaking down of feldspa-
thic micaceous rocks and the decom-
position of vegetable matter.
AS showing the value Of potash In
peach growing, the fifth annual re-
port of New Jersey Experiment Sta
ton gives detailed statements of the
profits from the application of wood
ashes, stable manure and clean cultl-
walton of various New Jersey soils in
peach culture. One instance is men,
toned where $4,000 was netted in
twelve years from fifteen acres in
peaches. This cultivator used wood
ashes and stable manure, planted no
crops in his orchard. and cultivated
thoroughly, chiefly with spring tooth
harrow, going over the ground last
season from fifteen to seventeen
times. He has almost no yellows,
and all trees areimmediately removed
on the first appearance of the disease.
From one young orchard he gathered
seventy baskets of fruit at two years
old. This orchard was manured with
wood ashes only. If he had enough
wood ashes he would like to apply
from fifty 90 seventy-ive bushels an
acre, but email quantity does g.
great deal of good.
Another cultivator on clay loan
set with 8, 500 bearing trees, uses mu-
riate of potash and best bone manure,
equal parts, and at the rate of $50
pounds an acre. In four years he re-
allied 5000 an acre. He plants on it
the same as If prepared for corn, and
raises no crops among his trees
Practical Farmer.
Harvesting and Threshing Buckwheat.
Unlike other small grain, buckwheat
ripens so late that the sap in it's
green straw can only be dried out by
repeated freezing. 1t has to be cut
before frost comes, and must then be
left for weeks until the ground freezes.
By this time the seed is so thoroughly
loosened that slight Earring will cause
it to fall out. The only binding
possible is slight twist around the
top, leaving the expanded butt for
each bundle to support itself on. But
the straw soon becomes so lignt that
heavy winds throw the buckwheat
down. Buckwheat is now often
threshed with the common grain
thresher, but it needs great power to
Poo CAO CUl law OAAOOSA IL
done early, and if the threshing is de-
layed until late much of the grain will
be lost. Probably the least expensive
mode OF threshing buckwheat is the
old-fashioned way of failing it out.
The first freezing weather will loosen
the grain in the head, when it may be
lifted carefully into wagons with tight
bottoms and drawn to the barn floor.
Laying the heads together the straw
need not be threshed more than half
way down to the butt, and by turning
and shaking, nearly all the grain may
be got out. The straw should not be
thrown into the barnyard, where it
will go into the manure pile. What
seed it contains will make q bad
weed in most crops. The straw has
very little value as feed, and it's
best use is to throw over sheds where
farm stock is kept. 1t makes good
protection against cold, but after one
or two years rots down into rather
poor manure.